In January 1978, People’s Literature published Xu Chi’s reportage “Goldbach’s Conjecture”. At that time, my father was teaching at Majiagang Middle School. He said to me, “This is an excellent piece, and you should read it.” I finished it quickly and was profoundly inspired by the spirit of the protagonist, Chen Jingrun, scaling the peak of the mathematical world. I secretly resolved to strive for scientific excellence like him.
In 1980, I was admitted to the Mining Engineering Mechanics program at Fuxin Mining Institute and embarked on my path in mechanics research.
In my sophomore year, hearing that Professor Zhang Mengtao, who taught our Elastic Mechanics course, had been involved in many on-site projects in coal mines, I volunteered to be the class representative for that course. I often asked him to share insights about mechanical problems in coal mining, such as rock bursts. We didn’t understand most of the technical details, but his philosophy—“Mechanics must move towards application; it must serve coal mine production”—deeply influenced me.
At that time, senior scientists like Qian Xuesen and Qian Weichang advocated that mechanics should break free from the classics and engage with the vast real world. Fuxin Mining Institute’s background was in geology and mining. Therefore, upon graduating with my bachelor’s degree in 1984, I chose without hesitation to pursue graduate studies at the same institute under Professor Zhang Mengtao’s supervision.
Rock burst is a dynamic disaster caused by the sudden release of elastic energy from coal and rock masses around underground mine roadways or working faces. It is a major disaster causing casualties, a worldwide challenge for coal mine safety, and a severe threat to energy security.
By the mid-1980s, rock burst disasters in China were becoming prominent, with severe incidents occurring in some major mining areas. After introducing foreign prevention and control technologies, it was found they were not suitable for China’s geological and mining conditions. Rock burst disasters remained inadequately controlled.
What should we do? We chose to go deep into the field.
In the summer of 1991, a rock burst accident occurred in the Tangshan mining area of Hebei. Professor Zhang Mengtao took me to the site. Another rock burst happened in the mine that very day. We immediately descended the shaft, crawling along the damaged roadway to observe the failure patterns firsthand. We discovered that rock bursts resulted from the instability of the deformation system of coal and rock in roadways where potential energy reached a maximum, and we derived a theoretical formula for rock burst occurrence.
We persisted in exploring research on rock bursts. Studies have shown that as mining depth increases, the heightened ground stress, intense disturbances, and substantial energy release can trigger rock bursts, which are highly likely to cause severe damage to tunnel support structures and result in casualties. Controlling the large energy released from afar due to high stress and strong disturbances is highly challenging. The interaction laws between roadway support and surrounding rock during the dynamic impact process were unclear. Traditional support systems struggled to withstand the strong dynamic loads, high velocities, and large energies involved, posing a difficult technical problem both domestically and internationally.
In May 2001, a rock burst occurred at Muchengjian Coal Mine under the Beijing Mining Bureau. I received a call at 3 a.m. and rushed to the scene. I found some sections of the roadway severely damaged, while others were less so. Upon careful investigation, I noticed that wooden plank supports had been installed during roadway excavation. It occurred to me that perhaps these supports had absorbed energy. So, why not proactively incorporate an energy-absorbing device into the roadway support system? Inspired by this, we developed an energy-absorbing anti-impact hydraulic support, which effectively absorbs energy during failure. Many miners called it the “life-saving support”.
Through numerous field visits, I identified issues such as misconceptions about rock bursts, management loopholes, and lagging regulations. In light of this, I organized professionals across the industry to compile documents like the Detailed Rules for Preventing and Controlling Coal Mine Rock Bursts, integrating and standardizing China’s rock burst prevention and control technologies. This provided clear legal enforcement benchmarks for regulatory oversight of rock burst prevention in China and facilitated widespread dissemination of knowledge in this area.
Through years of scientific research and talent cultivation, I observed that those studying mechanics can become preoccupied with classical problems. Moving towards application might even be perceived as low-level work by some. How to address this? I believe “application” can be broken down into two parts: scenarios and problems. We must understand the scenarios clearly and identify the problems. Problems don’t emerge from thin air; they arise from vivid, real-world social scenarios.
I promote this methodology derived from research to every teacher and student at Liaoning University, advocating a shift “from paper to paper, to direct engagement.” This means innovation cannot stem solely from the internal logic of theory; we must insist on integrating theory with reality. I guide teachers and students to “step out of campus to find real scenarios, enter society to find genuine problems, and approach the forefront to find practical innovations”, combining on-campus education with off-campus social realities. We are exploring an integrated practical path for education, technology, and talent that directly engages with social realities, directly aligns with comprehensive revitalization, and directly confronts real-world challenges.
Now, teachers and students at Liaoning University widely enter real-world scenarios like fields and mountains, factories and workshops, rural communities, and enterprises of all sizes to solve problems that carry “the freshness of rainwater and the fragrance of green grass”. They are building an ecological chain from settings to problems to innovation.
Of course, those engaged in scholarship and research also require perseverance and tenacity. More than 40 years have passed since I published my first paper on rock bursts in 1985, and I remain committed to this field, persistently visiting rock burst mine sites.
Some ask what has kept me going. Partly, it’s the joy derived from research, but more importantly, it’s the significance of the work. Every time I visit a mine and see the gratitude and trust in the eyes of the mine managers and workers, I instantly feel the profound importance of my current research.
When I see young scholars anxious about publication metrics, I want to say: go to the factory workshops, go to the fields, go to companies and enterprises, go into real-world social scenarios. Because that’s where you find the most vibrant, most genuine needs and problems. Isn’t the process of meeting these needs and solving these problems precisely the process of innovation?
